"Marge, I agree with you – in theory. In theory, communism works. In theory." — Homer Simpson

Main menu

Post navigation

How was FOCS 2015?

Back around 2010, the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at Berkeley offered to organize FOCS in 2013, 2015 and 2017. So far, the IEEE technical committee on mathematical foundations of computing has taken us up on this offer in 2013 and 2015, and, unless a competing bid is presented, FOCS will come again to Berkeley in 2017.

Unfortunately there is no hotel in downtown Berkeley that is able to accommodate FOCS. The Shattuck hotel almost but not quite is. (There are two conference rooms, but they are of very different size, and the space to hang out for coffee breaks is much too small for 200+ people, and it’s outdoors, which is potentially bad because rain in October is unlikely but not impossible in Berkeley.)

This leaves us with the Doubletree hotel in the Berkeley Marina, which has some advantages, such as views of the bay and good facilities, and some disadvantages, such as the isolated location and the high prices. The location also forces us to provide lunches, because it would be inconvenient for people to drive to lunch places and then drive back during the lunch break. Being well aware of this, the hotel charges extortionate fees for food.

This is to say that, planning for FOCS 2017, there is nothing much different that we can do, although there are lots of little details that we can adjust, and it would be great to know how people’s experience was.

For example, did the block of discounted hotel rooms run out too soon? Would you have liked to have received something else with your registration than just the badge? If so, what? (So far, I have heard suggestions for FOCS-branded hats, t-shirts, and teddy bears.) Wasn’t it awesome to have a full bar at the business meeting? Why did nobody try the soups at lunch? The soups were delicious!

Could the conference be held at the university itself? There must be plenty of large auditoriums to accommodate the talks, and I suppose the location is much more convenient for any food related concerns.